Suffering from Monday morning blues? Feeling low? Having a bad hair day? Whatever your problem, I have the answer. Go out, buy this book, sit down with cup of tea/coffee/glass of wine/champagne whatever, feet up and just read The Uncommon Reader by that National Treasure, Alan Bennett.
This book is a gem. A total and utter gem of the finest kind, a diamond of the first water, the finest of 
freshwater pearls, a sapphire of the deepest blue, I could go on and on..
Apart from being totally hilarious and witty and superbly written, not a wasted dot or comma anywhere, this story has an underlying sadness. The Queen, Her Maj, has discovered the joy of reading. She starts off with Ivy Compton-Burnett which she finds a struggle, but perseveres and soon finds a whole new world opening up in front of her. The sadness is that she realises how many years of reading she has wasted and what joy she has missed "I've discovered what I am" she says to her page and reading amanuensis "I am an opsimath". With the dictionary always to hand Norman read Opsimath: one who learns only late in life.'
HM gradually begins to form her own opinions and, as I have been writing about James recently, I was delighted to see "Am I alone" she wrote "in wanting to give Henry James a good talking to?"
She begins to resent her duties which keep her away from reading . On a visit to Canada:
"Don't you want to look at the St Lawrence seaway" said her husband "I opened it fifty years ago. I don't suppose it's changed" she replied
This book is a fantasy, obviously, but oh how I wish it wasn't. The idea of the Queen propped up in bed reading Proust is a profoundly alluring one. This book is about the joy of reading and don't we all agree with this remark also on the state visit to Canada:
"Can there be any greater pleasure", she confided in her neighbour, the Canadian minister for overseas trade "than to come across an author one enjoys and then to find they have written not just one book or two but at least a dozen?"
Way to go Your Maj!
Go out and get this book now. You will simply love love love it.
